The statements in this section merely provide background information related to the present disclosure and may not constitute prior art.
Different from internal-combustion vehicles which use fossil fuel as a main energy source, electric vehicles use electrical energy as a main energy source. Accordingly, an electric vehicle necessarily includes a high voltage battery capable of storing electrical energy, a motor as a power source, and an inverter for driving the motor.
Battery chargers for charging batteries of electric vehicles may be classified as slow chargers and rapid chargers. Slow chargers transmit commercial alternating current (AC) power as an AC power form to vehicles. On the other hand, rapid chargers convert commercial AC power to direct current (DC) and transmit the DC to vehicles. Slow chargers are advantageous for increasing penetration rates due to simple structures and low costs thereof. However, in order to use a slow charger, it is necessary to mount an on-board charger (OBC) in an electric vehicle.
AC power provided through a slow charger has a variety of types according to slow chargers installed in different nations. In order to charge a battery of an electric vehicle using the above-described variety of types of AC power, it is necessary that an OBC corresponds to a variety of types of commercial AC power.
To increase a one time traveling distance of an electric vehicle, greater capacity of a battery is better. Accordingly, manufacturers endeavor to increase battery capacity of electric vehicles. Employing a large-capacity battery accompanies an increase in charging time. In order to reduce a charging time of a large-capacity battery, it is necessary to increase capacity of an OBC. The increase in capacity of the OBC causes an increase in sizes of components and an increase in manufacturing costs.